Civic pride was on show as a town’s volunteers led the fightback against some of the borough’s worst grot spots during a community clean-up weekend.

Nearly 50 volunteers spent two days clearing the ‘disgusting and vile’ waste dumped along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal at Enfield Wharf in Clayton-le-Moors.

They filled nearly 90 bags of rubbish with plastic bottles and cans and also recovered 14 condoms, five bags of used nappies, two knives, 89 full poo bags and seven pairs of scissors.

Eighty-eight pieces of dog excrement were also cleaned up from paths and grassland.

Emma Kenyon said she organised the event because of the ‘horrific’ build up of flytipping and dog waste in the area over the last few months.

The 44-year-old former community safety manager said: “I walk round there every day and I saw how bad it was getting. However it was worse than I expected when we started working there. It was just disgusting and vile.

“It’s got much, much worse over the last six months. It got to a stage where there was so much stuff that hardly anybody picked anything up.

“I think it’s because of laziness and because there is no enforcement. There has also been winter and the cold weather and people just want to go out and get back in.”

The clean-up was held over two days last weekend and attracted volunteers from the local police cadets, residents and councillors.

Emma, who has lived in Clayton-le-Moors for 20 years, said: “It looks beautiful now. I was so proud. It’s so rare that you have something so pretty on your doorstep. I hope now that it is clean then people will respect it more.”

After the work was completed

However, Emma said their hard work has already been undermined with more flytipping and dog waste left on Sunday night.

She said: “I went for a walk on Monday morning and I pulled a sledge out which must have been dumped on Sunday night after we had gone.

“I was also very disappointed to pick up more poos. It’s obvious that there are some people who are walking their dog in an evening and are just not picking up after them.”